Go Gator Nation!

I visited my Alma mater last week as part of a job interview for Hillsborough county environmental horticulture extension agent. Which is an off-campus faculty member for UF. It is also nice to get another national championship title and have our star quarterback returning next year! I love to go to the Univ. of FL to see what has changed. I got to interview with some of the professors that taught me. It was a good experience. I also visited the student organic gardens next to Lake Alice and the Bat House. I arrived at the gardens at about 7:30 am and it was about 35 degrees F. But is was really nice to see what is growing out there. I saw some beautiful broccoli, cabbage, and a giant red mustard. I am going to try to grow some of those things at my farm. I also was able to break a piece of sugarcane off to grow out at my farm. I also picked some asparagus seeds and some dried luffa seeds. I will just play with them at the farm to see how they do. I also caught up with some advisers and I was introduced to a new professor, Dr. Danielle Treadwell. She spent a good while with me discussing organic vegetables and sustainability which is her area of expertise. I got some good ideas from her and a good bit of information which I will add to the next few posts just to spread it out.

I have ordered our seeds from Johhny's and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. I am already looking forward to try out some new things and some new cultivars. I have also planted our some of our red onions and red potatoes this week. I have also planted some more mustard, kale, romaine lettuce (just to use up the seeds), and some butterhead lettuce.

This is a list of National resources from Dr. Treadwell of the University of Florida:

AFSIC. Alternative Farming Systems Information Center. http://afsic.nal.usda.gov/
The sustainable agriculture component of the National Agriculture Library.

ATTRA .(Formerly Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas and now known as the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service) website: http://www.attra.org/
This site is sponsored by the USDA, and contains a wealth of information on sustainable agriculture, including organic production. Visit the pest management database (see below)

IFOAM International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements. http://www.ifoam.org/
The premier international body of organic agriculture professionals. They publish an annual report on global organic statistics and provide guidance to certifying agencies world-wide.

National Organic Program. http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/indexIE.htm
This site has information for consumers and growers on organic production in the US, including a complete copy of the standards.

NCAT Organic Crops Workbook. http://www.blogger.com/TALKS_2007/GardensGroves_BrevardCo_March31_07/www.attra.ncat.org
In collaboration with ATTRA, a very helpful workbook that guides producers through the process of certification, including creating an organic system plan for your operation.

OFRF Organic Farming Research Foundation http://www.ofrf.org/
From California, this non-profit organization serves the national organic community by providing research updates and grower survey results. They also offer small grants to growers for on-farm research projects.

SARE Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education http://www.sare.org/
SARE is a federally-funded program administered regionally in the U.S. The educational outreach component of SARE is SAN (Sustainable Agriculture Network). They have several online books that are very popular (see below)

Soil Quality Institute. http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/soil_quality/what_is/sqiinfo.html This website features information sheets on a variety of soil quality topics from the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)

Fall Season Underway

The strawberries around the county are growing, the citrus is turning sweeter by the day, and the vegetables are being harvested. I enjoy this time of the year. Holidays, baseball finals, (Go Rays!), college football (Go Gators), pro football (Go Bucs), and eating events.

Two pictures of our harvested crops!

We are still planting lettuces, cilantro, carrots, and onions. I started the red onion (Mars) in a tray and will be transplanting them out. I used organic soil and when they started to germinate out of the soil I top-dressed with an organic fertilizer (Sustane). I didn't have much luck with the horse poop this year. There was way too much wood shavings and it is having a very bad effect on the the germination of the seeds. I guess that they are drying out too fast. We are harvesting bok choy, oregano, mint, mustard, and collards. New this week to harvest are the citrus (Hamlins), dandelion, and parsley. The cucumbers are finished. I top dressed the entire field with an organic fertilizer (Bradfield) and weeded half of the plot. I will weed the next half this week and plant a few more things. The pest pressure is pretty light and there are ladybugs all over the place.

Pumpkin Recipe

One of our blog readers who also ordered some pumpkin seeds sent us a recipe for pumpkin soup. He says it's like Texas Chili, you can tweak to your own taste. Use one large pot (3-4 qt) filled with peeled, cubed pumpkin. Add 5 cups water and 5 cubes of chicken bullion. 1 large onion, quartered. Boil for 30-40 minutes. Puree adding add 1 stick margarine or butter, about 1 tsp fresh ground pepper and 1/2 cup half and half or whole milk. You can add garlic, parsley or other spices to change.
We still have seeds if you would like them. Refer to our previous post on how to get them.

Our new plot is doing alright. We have been harvesting cucumbers, mustards, mint (first harvest this week), oregano, and bok choy. I planted more mustards, collards, kale, lettuce again, carrots again, and cilantro. The older collards are starting to get bigger and will be harvesting soon. The cucumbers got hurt by an early frost last week. I'm not sure how much longer they will produce. I also planted a cover crop of a fall mix from Johnny's seeds and a crimson clover crop. I want to try the two to see which works best. That really was good for our summer crop. It helped me identify a real winner.

Harvest Starts Again!

We have started harvesting some plants. Nothing too big, but we have picked some arugula, cucumbers, mustards, mint and a bok choi. I have never eaten a bok choi before but it was really good. I put it in a stir fry with some leftover steak and it was really nice. It had a unique flavor but not too strong to offend.

Our seeds did not germinate like we had hoped and we had a lot of empty plot so I had to reseed were the water was reaching from the drip tubes. The tubes have worked well aside from that one point. The water travels pretty much straight down and not laterally to wet the row middles. If we were using transplants it would have worked fine. We have had some problems with grasshoppers and some caterpillars on some of the plants but we are taking care of them with pyrethren and bt sprays. In the next few weeks since the temperatures have fallen I will be planting the lettuces again. It was too hot for the a month ago.

We are also adding a composting toilet to the farm so I can rent out the mobile home that we used to live in. I am nearly finished with it and just need to add a door, a flap in the back for the waste removal, a hole where the waste enters, and some paint. I also would like to put some screen for the top for air flow.

Next Planting

We have planted about half of our next plot so far. Fourteen rows by about 26 feet. We had a picnic breakfast and the whole family (Jenn, Anna (2 yrs), Nate (5 mo.)) all came out to help. Nathan slept through all the work. We will need to fix that poor work ethic. And Anna was a big help with the snow peas. We had a fun time despite the 90 F. degree temperatures. For the first time on our vegetables, we are using the drip tape from Queen Gil. I hope it goes well. I would like to conserve the water and minimize weed competition where I am not growing plants between the rows. I am a little worried that the drip pattern will not reach the middle of the rows where I planted some seeds. We will find out quickly. We planted what worked well last time, some new things, and some seeds we saved from our last year. I also planted some left over herb transplants just to use them up. We will see what happens. I am disappointed with our cucumbers. I started them early so I could get them in before the frost sets in December. They were growing beautifully and were over growing the plug trays. They were the nicest cucumber transplants I have ever seen. Unfortunately I missed a watering for 24 hours because I thought that it was going to rain at night and it didn’t. They burnt up and I have been trying to nurse them back to health. Some of them are going to die. But I guess you can look at it that they have been screened for extreme drought tolerance. Maybe I can use that method in the future for all the cucumber transplants. They are also the last of our seeds we have saved from two crops. When I planted these plants I left the rest of my saved seeds out in the rain and found them all germinated about two weeks later. So if we don’t get some cucumbers to harvest we will have lost all our selected saved seeds. I think that I am going to try and save two years worth of seeds in case something bad happens to our crops. I am having some difficulty with our filter for our drip tubes getting clogged up rapidly. I hope I can fix this issue. We put pressure regulators on the pipes because the drip tube pressure was too great and was blowing the tubes apart. The tubes need about 12 psi of pressure but not much more than that or problems will arise. I buried some of the tubes to see if we can lay the tube that way and still have an effective germination.

Pumpkin Seeds For Sale

Organically produced, tropical pumpkin seeds for sale!
I am offering organically grown tropical pumpkin seeds for sale. These pumpkins or calabasa squash as they are also called, are internally the same consistency of pumpkin or butternut squash. An organic grower who made pumpkin pies with them introduced me to the plant a year ago at the Plant City Farmers’Market. I bought one, saved the seeds to plant, and ate it. I now love the plant both from a culinary and horticultural standpoint. Each plant has produced over 40 pounds of fruit, which I have eaten, given away, or sold. I have made soups, pies, and side dishes with the ones we harvested for ourselves. Once cooked, the flesh will store well in the freezer. You can use them any where you could use either sweet potato or pumpkin recipes. The plant produced beautifully in our hot, humid, tropical summer here in zone 9 with virtually no care. I will sell them as long as supplies last for $1.75 for 25 seeds. Email your name and address to ststeed@verizon.net if you would like a seed package.

Still growing

Things are going alright with the trial gardens. I had to rip out the squash and the melons have all but died. It is the same thing year after year with melons. They look great, put out fruit, and then die right before the fruit become harvestable. Oh well. I won't try to grow them for a while. The peppers, eggplants, beans, corn, and tropical pumpkin are growing fine. I sprayed a concoction of Bt, spinosad, and oil to control a multitude of pests that are attacking just about everything in the garden. I would like to keep harvesting cucumbers but they now have mites so I think that will end them soon. I got great harvests off them. I picked about 2 pounds per plant.


I am just about to plant some herbs to see how they will do. Basil, oregano, peppermint, cilantro, and Italian parsley. That should be planted this week.


I have harvested most of the seeds that I wanted and will turn in the winter trial. I am growing a zucchini squash for the seeds and that thing just keeps getting bigger. I am surprised that it has gotten this large.

Seed stock zucchini 24" x 5"

In the front of this picture is a purple nutsedge flower. This is one of the world's worst weeds in terms of economic crop damages and loss. It is spread via seeds and under ground tubers. I spent about 4 years working with this weed in some capacity at the University of Florida in various weed science labs. I despise this weed for all the drudgery incured at school but admire its tenacity and vigor.

A New Planting

The oranges are in full blossom right now. I love this time of the year in the grove. The smell is like an intoxicating drug for me. I can't get enough of the aromas. We had three inches of rain, 80 F. temperatures, and then a light frost all in the span of a week. It is amazing how quickly our Florida weather changes. I have been itching to plant my transplants into the new plot. I have been trying to wait 30 days for the manure to settle before I planted just so I don't get any contamination on our food. But I couldn't wait any longer. I planted a French melon called a Charentais var. "Savor" from Johnny's Seeds. I have never heard of this but I was sold on the description and the pictures (nice job, ad guys). I planted a galia melon, "Arava". The galia is an Isreali melon. I had them before in graduate school. Another student and friend of mine was doing research on them for a new greenhouse crop. I helped him a time or two with his research and I got to eat fresh galia melons. They were very sweet and fragrant. I also planted cantalope var. "Earliqueen". I never had any luck with melons. They always seem to die right before the fruits become ripe. I hope I can break that streak this time. I hoed the ground before planting and then watered them in lightly.

We missed the transplants target date of this weekend. Due to a freeze, not getting our seeds until this week, and the slower rate at which organic plants grow. I worked for Speedling, Inc., a major transplant supplier to farmers and could grow most transplants in about 4 weeks. I need a bit longer than that for a marketable plant to sell organically. The seed company, Southern Exposure Seeds ran out of cherry tomato seeds that I ordered. They then forgot to call me and let my order languish because they had no response from me on what to do with the other seeds they had. I am glad I finally called them. It took two days to hear back from them and it took two phone calls and an email. I will plan better next year for these set backs.

We are still harvesting carrots, beets, lettuce, collards, mustards, and dandelion in our trial plot. We will continue to harvest Hamlin oranges and the Valencias will be ready shortly. Our peaches, nectarines, plums, limes, lemons, grapefruit, and other citrus are blooming now.

I hope to finish planting the rest of the new plot this week with cucurbits, squash, corn, beans, a little late lettuce.

Spring Time

A severe close up of our first peach and blossoms. Sorry about the blur.

Spring has sprung. We have been bouncing back and forth from temperatures in the upper 30’s F. in the morning to the mid 80’s on other days in the afternoon. The plants are always confused at this time of the year. They don’t know whether to stay dormant or start growing. However, the grass is growing, the peaches are blossoming, and the citrus trees have their buds enlarging. Last week we planted about a fourth of the seeds into our trays, we are still waiting on seeds to arrive so we can finish our planting. I find that sometimes the produce market can be a great place to buy seeds. I bought some jalapeno and bell peppers and pulled out the seeds to use for our transplants. I also saved one of our cucumbers from last year and got all the seeds from that. That particular plant produced a whooping amount of cucumbers all season long. I was supper impressed. The fruit has even stayed hard since the end of summer last year. I am hoping to supply my own seeds on certain vegetables. I feel that if I harvest seeds from plants that don’t flower too early or late and that yield well, then I will in essence be breeding and selecting plants that are a perfect fit for my microclimate.

We have been harvesting carrots, lettuce, arugula, cauliflower, dandelion, mustards, and collards. Our romaine lettuce hasn’t grown well. I have harvested a few heads here and there, but the majority of the leaves have been mottled and misshapen. I can’t tell if it is thrips damage or a virus. A thrip is a very tiny yellow insect that scrapes leaves with its razor like mouthparts and then sucks up the juices. They are barely visible to the eye. They come in waves during the spring and are attracted to the color white. I remember back in graduate school when I had field trials, one day I wore a white T-shirt and started feeling an itch on my skin. I scratched for a while until it started to really bother me and I investigated in more detail. I realized that I was crawling with thrips and they were busy dining on my skin. Another person not wearing white was not as harassed as I was. Now I can tell when they are around because I remember what they feel like when they are rasping my skin with their tiny mouths.

I will start preparing for the market this weekend. I am glad I will have a better array of produce than our first market experience. I am also looking forward to see how our increased prices will fare. I probably will not bring as much landscape material and increase the amount of organic vegetables from our farm this time.

I hope to plant our new red leaf lettuce and another variety of escarole this week. I also hope to find some sweet potatoes in the store in order to plant them in our fields.